- Style/technique:
Art nouveau lustre
- Manufacturer: Maw
& Co
- Designer: Very
likely C H Temple
- Dimensions: 6" x
6"
- Date: circa
1900
A repeating pattern in an aggressively
stylised art nouveau yet arts & crafts
influenced design
featuring highly stylised
floral decoration, the outline in a brown stain
apparently painted through a stencil and hand
coloured with silver lustre.
We have seen this pattern three times, one
time in gold five tiles (three 'tops' and two
'bottoms') in a cast iron fireplace, one time
four in gold in slabbed panels and a third time
in red.
Maw & Co together
with their near neighbours Craven Dunnill and
the Welsh company J C Edwards produced the best
quality lustre tiles in the more usual copper
(red) and silver (gold). The process relying on
a reaction between the atmosphere in the kiln
and the painted stain results in a brilliant
metallic sheen that is literally on the very
surface and hence is often subject to marks like
scratches and wear, these tiles however have a
near perfect surface with only very minor marks.
The difficulty and unpredictability of the
process also means that rather more less than
perfect lustre tiles were acceptable. They were
vastly more expensive than tiles decorated by
other techniques, up to eight times more
expensive than other handpainted tiles of the
day.
An interesting comparison of prices can be
gained from a Maw & Co price list dating
from the 1890s.
- Plain coloured tiles 4 - 4.5 each
- Relief tiles 6.5 - 7 each
- Walter Crane designs 6.5 each
- Lustre tiles 56 each
The unit of currency in 1890 is pennies, old
pennies - 240 to the pound!
Silver lustre is
so-called because the element that makes the
colour is silver, the effect however is of
gold.
